City Council committee to resume review of courts' expense funds

The New Orleans City Council's Budget Committee is scheduled to meet today at 12:30 p.m. in the council chamber at City Hall. Among other things, it is expected to resume discussion of a proposal to require the Municipal Court and Traffic Court judges to turn over any unspent money from their judicial expense funds to the city's general fund at the end of each year.

Danny Bourque, The Times-Picayune archiveJudicial funds of New Orleans' Municipal and Traffic Courts will be reviewed at a New Orleans City Council Budget Committee meeting today.

The committee discussed the issue at length on March 7, and it appeared that the judges and Landrieu administration officials had agreed on a solution acceptable to both sides, but the committee members, led by President Jackie Clarkson, said they still had questions about the arrangement. So they decided to defer action on the proposal, which Councilwoman Susan Guidry introduced several months ago.

Municipal Court Chief Judge Paul Sens and other judges told the committee they were prepared to turn over the money, but they said the city needs to devise a plan to properly fund the courts. Otherwise, they warned, they will go to Civil District Court seeking to force the city to give them more money so they can hire more staff members and pay them properly.

The two courts' judicial expense funds have come under scrutiny from Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux, who has suggested that, in the future, the city be given authority over revenue collection for both courts, which take in millions of dollars annually in fees and fines.

Last fall, Quatrevaux released a scathing report on Traffic Court's operations, among other things accusing it of stealing money from the city and other agencies. The report said the court in 2010 stiffed the city, the district attorney's office, Crimestoppers, the public defender office and others to the tune of $1.3 million, stashing the money in its judicial expense fund. It also kept $500,000 in surplus revenue and used another $425,000 in revenue from city fines to pay its accountant, the report said.

The court's judges responded that they would transfer $2.2 million from the judicial expense fund to the city.

Quatrevaux's report also said the court misstated its revenue, paid full-time salaries and benefits to part-time judges and employees, and let a contract accountant charge more than $600,000 in 2010 while also serving as the campaign treasurer for a sitting judge.